super fun new skills and loads of poo

There is so much poo in our lives right now! I swear.....if Mable reverts to pre-house-broken.....

Ok, so I'm exaggerating. Baxter is doing great. Only a few piddles (that word makes me laugh...I must be 13) and two poo's. And the poo's were on Matt's watch. It has been an adjustment. I mean, watching G is enough work for like 5 people. And now we need to remember to take Baxter out every time he wakes up or lays down or takes a drink or... really all.the.time. If he wasn't so stinking cute bouncing around the yard and accidentally rolling himself over it might get annoying.

Enough about the poo. You probably didn't even want to know all of that anyway.

What fun new skills am I talking about you may wonder? Who else dominates this blog? Surely not Matt or me...

Graham's brain must have grown since my 15 month update post. Seriously, he has blown us away the last 2 weeks!

His comprehension of our words must have just clicked. He understands pretty much everything we're saying which is terrifying! I got him some new books recently (at Matt's request) and G loves them. One is a "my first words" book with large pictures of every day household items. So the other night we were looking at it and I began asking him to show me certain things. I mean, he pointed to the fence when I asked him where it was. When have we ever shown him a fence? Let alone a white picket one....totally cool. And when Matt asked him to show him the TV, G pointed to it in the book and then got up and went over to ours and pointed to it. He knows practically every item in the book. Wow!

He's also finally calling me "mama" and it's unquestionably the most adorable and tender thing in the whole world. He also will point to Daddy, Pop, Mimi, aunt Laura, Coco...me...pretty much any of his family members when we ask him where they are. It's so sweet.

He is also very generous with giving noggin, hugs, and kisses. Kisses are a little trickier if he has his paci in. I think that's now noggin was born. If he has his paci in and you ask for a kiss, he just "leans in." But he'll give practically anything noggin. Coco, Elmo, his "yuh-yuh" (lovey)... My mom says that watching him go in to Coco's face for a noggin is so funny! I just think finally getting kisses when I ask for them is so sweet! He's even sweet to the twins. The other day, whenever they would fuss or cry, he would go over to them and gently pick up their paci and put it in their mouth. And he'll give them a kiss if we ask him. I had no idea that he would be so gentle and sweet to them!

We've also had some major breakthroughs with his eating. He has decided that he likes bagels and cream cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, popcorn, and rice cakes. I wish I could report that there was a veggie in this new list...but no such luck. One time I got him to eat a few carrots out of my chicken soup but I don't want to count it if it was just 2 pieces. So we're still mixing veggie purees into his yogurt. Poor kid.

One more development. G slept through the night, in his crib. And he did it all on his own! One more....he did it two nights in a row! Like I said in his 15 month update - he was been sleeping until like 4-5 in his crib and then waking and joining us in our bed/room until like 8:30ish. Well, in the last 2 weeks G and I have been fighting colds and he was waking up many many times unable to breathe. I don't think I'll ever not be sad when a baby of mine has a cold. The stuffy nose is soooo sad! Anyway, last week one night I woke up at like 5 and realized that we were still alone in our bed. I went in and made sure that G was still breathing... And what do you know...he slept until 7:30. I was totally shocked and didn't expect it to happen again. And then he did it again the next night. Cool huh?! Didn't happen a third night but he did sleep until 5:30 which is awesome. I'm not expecting this to be a permanent skill by any means. And I honestly don't mind getting up with him. Seriously don't. Especially if it's just once, many times does get a wee bit annoying. I just wanted to document that it happened. This is a blog/baby book after all, haha!

Oh, and one last fun thing. You know those wire maze things that twist and turn and there are shapes on each one that you move along the maze? I am probably not describing it correctly. Anyway, I sometimes take him to work (at that baby boutique) with me and they have this huuge maze thing. And he recently decided that he gets it and loves it. I didn't know that he would know how to move the the beads along the line but he did it, and very methodically. I was blown away.

So that's it for now. Just wanted to get these documented before I forgot. He's just going to learn new fun things each and every day from here on out anyway!